There’s Now A Restaurant Serving Stomach-Turning Rat Burgers

It’s been a big year for controversial sandwiches… remember the 8,000 calorie sandwich which carries a disclaimer ensuring people can’t sue the restaurant if they die? Well, now there’s another sandwich which should probably include the same deal, as it’s made from rat.

Krasnodar Bistro in Moscow, Russia offers a rat burger on its menu, and it’s certainly not for the faint-hearted.

Surprisingly, the river rat – known as a nutria, or coypu – can be found all over the region, and has been consumed as a standard meal by many people since the 1990s. Nutrias multiply incredibly quickly, making them cheap and easy to farm and for those living below the poverty line, nutrias have even been bred for fur coats as a cheap substitute to fox and mink. But look at their little faces – our hearts break imagining munching on one of these for our lunch.

A restaurant in Russia is now producing burgers made from rodents. (Credit: Miha Pavlin/Getty)

35-year-old chef and restaurateur Takhir Kholikberdiev ensures us that eating the rats is perfectly safe:

“It’s a really clean animal; not only is it a herbivore but it washes all its food before it eats. And it’s very high in omega-3 acids. A lot of doctors and dietitians recommend it.”

Hmm, we can’t see this being approved by the NHS any time soon.

The nutria burger is apparently “juicy” but “fairly bland” and tastes “somewhere between turkey and pork.” It’s also really easy to cook, and diners have said that it tastes pretty good.

Although bland, the nutria burger has been described as “juicy.” (Credit: Handout)

A generously sized burger will cost around 550 roubles, which is a reasonable £6.90. If you’re more of a hotdog kind of person, then the chefs at Krasnodar Bistro will happily offer you the nutria burger in hotdog form.

There’s no doubt that the rat burger is intriguing, but we’re just not sure we could stomach it. Could you?